New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul’s widow to withdraw her letter for CBI or NIA probe into the allegations levelled in his purported suicide note against some former and serving persons holding constitutional posts and politicians.
The apex court’s order came after the advocate appearing for the former chief minister’s wife, Dangwimsai Pul, said Chief Justice of India J S Khehar should not have ordered this issue to be taken up in the judicial side as there are serious allegations.
An assertive senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for Pul, said the matter should be dealt with in administrative side as the dismissal of the case in the judicial side would render the former Chief Minister’s widow remediless.
He also expressed reservations over the CJI setting up a two-judge bench to dispose of this “sensitive” matter, saying that in the matter of Calcutta High Court Judge, Justice C S Karnan, the CJI had constituted a seven-judge bench.
However, in the case in hand “which has far more serious implications”, the CJI went ahead with the two-judge bench which he should not have done himself as there were serious allegations and setting up of a bench should have been left to the third senior-most judge of the apex court, Dave said.
The senior advocate said he was refraining himself from saying many things in the open court and added that fresh developments have taken place and a former judge of the apex court has met him.
“We would like to know how this matter has been listed before this court. It has to be dealt with in administrative side,” Dave told a two-judge bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit while seeking recusal of the former from hearing the matter on the ground that he was a member in the bench at the Punjab and Haryana High Court when CJI Khehar was also a judge there.
“We are surprised that it has been listed in the judicial side. Please recuse yourself from hearing. Do not go into it. The content of the suicide note is very sensitive. This institution is far more important for all of us,” Dave told the bench which refused his plea for recusal of Justice Goel. (PTI)
